SIR extended in 5 states, 1 UT, no relief for Bengal

THe Election charge on th extended the deadline for the number one stage of the on-going Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for six states and Union Territories but refused to change the dates for another six provinces, including in poll-bound West Bengal where the ruling party has vehemently opposed the contentious exercise.The poll body extended the date for Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Uttar Pradesh after receiving formal requests from their chief electoral officers.Under the revised schedule, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat will complete enumeration by December 14, with draft electoral rolls to be published on December 19. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands have been granted time until December 18, and their draft rolls will be published on December 23. Uttar Pradesh, which sought additional days due to its scale of field operations, has been given until December 26, with draft rolls set for publication on December 31.But in Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan and West Bengal, the enumeration deadline remained unchanged and ended on Thursday. The draft rolls in these regions will be published on December 16. In Kerala, where the timeline was revised earlier on account of local body polls, enumeration will continue until December 18 and draft rolls will be published on December 23.All states that go to the polls next summer have the SIR underway, except in Assam where there is only a special revision of rolls on account of the 2019 National Register of Citizens exercise. Among these, the first phase ended in West Bengal and Puducherry on Thursday.In all, roughly 510 million – or about half of India’s electorate – is covered in this round’s SIR. The current SIR marks the ninth such revision of electoral rolls since Independence, with the last conducted between 2002 and 2004.The controversial exercise was conducted in Bihar beginning July 1, which saw roughly 100,000 booth-level officers fan out across 38 districts and distribute partially pre-filled forms to electors. In all, the number of deletions stood at 6.9 million names and the number of additions stood at 2.15 million. The final roll of 74.2 million people, published on September 30, was a key issue in the high-stakes assembly elections in Bihar.The deletions in Bihar were among the largest single removal of voters from any state’s electoral rolls in recent memory, a move the poll panel defended as being necessary in the Supreme Court to maintain the sanctity of elections. But the Opposition has called SIR an effort to disenfranchise marginalised communities and the exercise has turned into a political flashpoint, especially in West Bengal.This round of SIR has seen slow progress in several states such as UP and Kerala, however the states picked up the pace later. In UP for example, Chief Electoral Officer had warned 21 districts — including Meerut and Ghaziabad — to speed up the slow distribution of enumeration forms. More than a dozen booth-level officers died by suicide or alleged work-related stress in states such as West Bengal, UP, Gujarat, and Kerala.After the enumeration phase, focus will now shift on the checking of documents and electors whose names are not in the 2002 rolls will have to provide some document to back their inclusion in the voter rolls.Among the states with the most bitter confrontation on the SIR is Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress is hoping to score a fourth consecutive term in the 2026 polls.Senior officials in the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer told HT that the state did not seek an extension because SIR work was “substantially completed” and the revision process was “on track” ahead of the assembly elections next year. According to them, ECI reviewed the state’s progress and concluded that the timeline could remain unchanged.EC officials told HT that at a review meeting on Thursday, the election commission “did not feel the need” to delay West Bengal’s schedule as everything was “on track” except the rationalisation of polling stations for which the date has been changed for the state. The state has received a two-month extension to rationalise polling stations. Officials also said that the commission was not “keen” on extending the timeline for West Bengal as it has been politically “volatile” and the body would like to wrap up the work on time in the state.At a rally in Krishnanagar, chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Centre and the EC were using the revision exercise to delete large numbers of legitimate voters. She accused Union home minister Amit Shah of directing attempts to remove “1.5 crore names” and warned that she would begin an indefinite sit-in if even one eligible voter was excluded.The CM reiterated that she had not filled her own SIR enumeration form, asserting that she would do so only after every citizen’s form was accepted.“A BLO came to my home-office. But I have not taken any form myself. I have not submitted my form yet. I am a three-time central minister, seven-time MP, and three-time CM. Do I have to prove my citizenship now to a party of rioters?” she asked.SP leader Akhilesh Yadav said that the extension is a “victory for our legitimate demand. “The two-week extension of the SIR deadline is a victory for our legitimate demand, as well as for the BLOs and PDA guards. During these two weeks, all PDA guards should work at double speed and ensure that not a single valid vote is rejected,” Yadav wrote on X.Earlier this month in the Supreme Court, EC had opposed the Kerala government’s plea for an extension of the deadline, arguing that local body polls were not an impediment to the exercise. The Court, in an order dated December 2 on a petition filed by IUML leader PK Kunhalikutty, had allowed the Kerala government to submit a request-cum-proposal to the ECI explaining why additional time was needed for completing the enumeration phase. The apex court directed the EC to examine the request “objectively and sympathetically”, and issue a decision accordingly. Responding to this, the Kerala government wrote to the ECI on December 3, citing ongoing local body elections and seeking an extension for completing the enumeration work under SIR.Alongside the revised timetable, the commission released updated SIR progress figures showing near-complete distribution of forms. Most jurisdictions have reported 100% distribution, including Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan has reported over 99% distribution, Uttar Pradesh 99.9% and Kerala 99.8%. West Bengal has reported full distribution as well.To be sure, ECI has not reported just how many of the forms that were distributed have been received, or given a statewise breakup.With extensions now formalised for six states and enumeration concluding elsewhere as scheduled, the publication of draft rolls will be staggered between December 16 and December 31. Final electoral rolls under SIR will be published in February 2026.